Gretel C. Kovach, a U-T San Diego military affairs reporter, has been selected for two awards for “exemplary work in advancing and preserving Marine Corps history,” the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation announced Wednesday.

Kovach won The Major Megan McClung Award for overseas reporting based on her work in Sangin, Afghanistan, last year covering Camp Pendleton’s 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. She spent nearly three weeks in February and March with U-T photographer Nelvin C. Cepeda shadowing the infantry unit, walking on patrol as the Marines braved insurgent minefields.

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Kovach also won The General Oliver P. Smith Award for local reporting based on her eight-day series about the recovery of a Marine double amputee wounded by an improvised explosive device. Kovach and Cepeda spent three months with Sgt. Collin Raaz at San Diego Naval Medical Center as the former scout sniper learned to walk again on prosthetic legs.

Others honored this year include NPR photographer David Gilkey, for Afghanistan photos; retired Marine Master Gunnery Sgt. R.R. Keene, for his series in Leatherneck Magazine, “Because Marines Never Forget – Veterans Return to Saipan & Tinian;” and former Newsweek editor William Broyles Jr., a Marine veteran of the Vietnam War who wrote the screenplays for “Flags of Our Fathers,” “Jarhead,” “Apollo 13” and “Khe Sahn,” among others.

The mission of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation is to preserve and promulgate the history, traditions and culture of the Marine Corps. It also raises funds for the National Museum of the Marine Corps at Quantico, Va.

The Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James Amos, is expected to present the awards April 21 at the museum with two Marine veterans who lead the foundation: retired Gen. Walter E. Boomer, the chairman; retired Lt. Gen. Robert R. Blackman Jr., the president.